The Mom Stop column: Let’s weigh risks before reopening

Lydia Seabol Avant More Content Now

Tuesday

Apr 28, 2020 at 8:20 AM

When the coronavirus first started to spread across the U.S., back before schools had shuttered and before we were told to stay at home, my then 4-year-old daughter looked at me one evening after overhearing the evening news on TV.

Her lip quivered and her eyes filled with tears.

“Mommy, am I going to get that virus?” she asked.

I assured my kids that no, the virus never makes kids very sick and that it’s only the very old people or people with health problems that get seriously ill. While we still need to wash our hands and be careful about symptoms, I assured my kids that everything was going to be fine. I told them that life as we know it would continue.

Looking back, only two months ago, I had no idea that we would be where we are today. If only things were as simple as washing hands.

Things hit home for me in late March, when, while texting an old friend in the New York City area about the difficulties of trying to work from home while homeschooling the kids, she told me her 10-year-old son was sick. It was COVID-19. Because of the onslaught of the virus, it was almost impossible to find any kind of disinfectant, masks or gloves. The family had been staying home, much like we all are, and yet their son still got sick.

My kids started praying for the boy every night. I had some masks, extra Lysol wipes and hand sanitizer that I had bought back in February, and we packed them up, along with candy and homemade get-well cards that my kids made, and shipped the box to Brooklyn. Thankfully, the boy’s symptoms were fairly mild, and after two weeks, the fever dissipated and he recovered.

But not every child has been so lucky.

Last week, 5-year-old Skylar Herbert in Michigan became the first child in the U.S. to die of COVID-19. Like so many other girls her age, like my own 5-year-old daughter - she loved dressing up and performing and loved all things “bling.” A kindergartner, she loved going to school and began reading when she was only 4.

But last month she started complaining of headaches, the Washington Post reported. And within days she was hospitalized with COVID-19. She developed a rare form of meningitis, suffered from brain swelling and eventually was put on a ventilator to help her breathe. She did not survive.

She did not have any underlying health conditions.

The majority of the COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have been people who are over age 60 or people who have underlying health conditions. But there have also been critical cases among the young and people without underlying health conditions who have also ended up on ventilators and some who have died.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 21,050 COVID-19 deaths as of April 22. Three of the deaths were in children age 14 and younger, 21 deaths in people age 24 and younger, and 585 of the people who died were between 25 and 44.

There is no sure way of knowing how many people ended up on a ventilator and survived, or how many people have actually had the virus. Without widespread testing, we won’t really know how many people have antibodies or how many people have the virus but are asymptomatic.

In the last couple of weeks, people have protested across the country, saying that businesses should re-open and stay-at-home orders should be lifted for the sake of the economy and their personal rights to do business as they please. While states like Georgia have started to lift their business closures, despite not yet reaching a peak on COVID-19 cases, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced last week that she will not lift the statewide stay-at-home order yet.When she lifts the restrictions, Ivey said the decision will be based on data. Currently, the state is testing about 1% of the population for COVID-19, and Alabama doesn’t have enough information right now about the number of cases out there to lift the stay-at-home order, Ivey said.For that, I applaud her. I understand the need to reopen the economy and get back to a somewhat normal life. I look forward to the day when I can go back to work and my kids can go back to school. But until we are able to conduct widespread testing to know who for sure has the virus and how many people may be immune, we don’t need to rush reopening business as usual, just for the sake of it.